Tiki Barber

NBC's Football Night in America is something like too much of a good thing. The network seems intent on stuffing the Sunday night broadcast with everything but the kitchen sink.

When Tiki Barber retired from the New York Giants, he joined their broadcast. Same thing with Jerome Bettis of the Pittsburgh Steelers. Then Keith Olbermann, a sports guy before becoming the host of MSNBC's Countdown, was inserted into the show. And that was on top of the three mainstays Bob Costas, Cris Collinsworth and Peter King.

Now, you can add one more star to the constellation. Dan Patrick is joining Football Night in America. Patrick, formerly the main man at ESPN -- and Keith's longtime partner on Sports Center as well as Dan's radio show -- will be paired up with Olbermann again and will be slotted in as pre-game show's co-host.

There's no question that Patrick will be an asset. His 18 years at ESPN proved that, and I admired his maverick spirit when he bolted the comforts of Bristol, Connecticut and set up a new deal with his radio show.

Katharine McPhee and Jordin Sparks will be performing at this year's Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular. The Idol alums will be joined by country music sensation Kenny Chesney and British chart-topper Natasha Bedingfield. McPhee, who is currently working with David Foster on her second album, will perform "Save The Last Dance for Me" at the event. Sparks, who is nominated for a BET Viewer's Choice Award for her duet with Chris Brown, is set to perform her latest single "One Step at a Time." Chesney will sing "Never Wanted Nothing More" and Bedingfield will sing "Pocketful of Sunshine." Natalie Morales of NBC's Today and Tiki Barber of Today and Football Night in America will co-host the event on Independence Day.

The Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular will air from 9-10 p.m. on NBC. Sound like something you'd watch? I don't know if I'll be tuning in for this. I'd rather find a local fireworks show than watch one on TV.

Anyone catch the live broadcast of Costas NOW last night? I was lucky enough to get a few tickets and went to the live taping in Manhattan with my girlfriend. And I really do mean lucky. Not only did we get seated in the front row, but we were seated right in front of all the panelists. Everyone. Joe Buck, Cris Carter, Mitch Albom, Mike Tirico, Michael Wilbon, John McEnroe... the list goes on. And of course, Bob Costas was only a few feet in front of us on stage. For a sports and TV fanatic, it was very impressive. So why am I writing about it? The town hall format of the show covered a lot of hot topics in sports, but there were a couple segments that really stood out because they directly relate to what we're doing here at TV Squad -- blogging and athletes' (or in our case TV celebs, writers, and producers) reactions to the media.

(S04E03) I know we're only three episodes in and I know I've brought this up in all my other Project Runway reviews for this cycle, but... I am so disappointed. I mean, I am actually bored at this point. Don't get me wrong, the producers have picked people to fit all the reality show character roles. We've got the over-confident newcomer, the crazy person, the older woman who acts like she's a lot younger than she really is, and so on and so on. Somewhere along the line, they forgot to look for the superstars. Everything is covered in a sickly shade of mediocre, and I can't help but yawn while looking at it.

I hope they have some better things in store for us. None of the designers truly excite me and I don't have a particular person I'm looking forward to seeing every week. Even the special guest judges (two in three episodes? Really?) haven't been able to save the blandness. Spice it up, designers, or -- or -- I'll turn off the TV and read... or something. Don't make me do it, Bravo. It's a lose-lose.

Before we start: Isn't this picture of Tiki Barber and Dr. Ruth the greatest photo? I have no idea what's going on, but i like to imagine that it captured the split second before Barber crushed Dr. Ruth's hand and flipped her over his shoulder, just to show her who's boss.

Pam Anderson has married Rick Solomon. Why should you care? Pam Anderson once made a crazy sex tape with Tommy Lee and Rick Solomon is the night-vision fellow from the Paris Hilton tape. That can only mean that the craziest sex tape of all time is right around the corner. I heard it's going to be in 3-D and have Smell-O-Vision. Fancy!

Are Today Show viewers - even the most loyal Today Show viewers - asking for a fourth hour of the show every single day?

Looks that way. As we reported earlier, NBC is going ahead with their plans for a fourth hour of the morning show, and Broadcasting & Cable is reporting that the hosts have been named: Ann Curry, Natalie Morales, and Hoda Kotb. Giada De Laurentis and Tiki Barber will be correspondents on the show.

I assume that NBC has done some sort of market research that pushes them in this direction, but as a viewer I'm kind of nauseated. Look at all that TV space that's being taken up by having four hours of Today on Monday through Friday (and another two hours each on Saturday and Sunday). Yikes.

When it concluded, panelists including Tiki Barber, John Madden and Al Michaels tossed out signed footballs to 10 or so lucky members of the press. Score! I caught the ball thrown to me by 2006 Super Bowl champion Jerome Bettis, formerly of The Pittsburgh Steelers, now an NBC sports analyst.

In my dreams. It actually sailed over my head to a journalist behind me. "Fumble," he said as he scooped it up.

What would the Fourth of July be without hot dogs, fireworks, and Blake's beatboxing?American Idol finalist Blake Lewis will be joining third place finisher Melinda Doolittle, as well as this year's reigning champ Jordin Sparks for Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular on NBC. The special will be hosted by Natalie Morales and Tiki Barber from NBC's Today Show. Country singer Martina McBride will also be on hand to perform "Anyway."

NBC says the fireworks display "will feature nearly 35,000 brilliant shells exploding over New York City" in the country's largest Fourth of July fireworks extravaganza. The one-hour Spectacular will be televised at 9PM from New York.

Or should I say "another gig," as he'll still be host of MSNBC's Countdown. But he's going to add a co-hosting position on NBC's Football Night In America, the pre-game show that airs at 7pm on Sunday nights before the NFL game that NBC telecasts.

Olbermann has a long history in TV sports, having hosted ESPN's SportsCenter with Dan Patrick years ago (he was one of the models for the characters on Sports Night) and his own show on FOX Sports Network that was good but didn't last too long. This will be his first job in network sports in several years, other than what he does on Dan Patrick's radio show. Olbermann will join Bob Costas, Cris Collinsworth, Jerome Bettis, and Tiki Barber, who started on NBC this morning.

As a Giants fan, I was completely bummed when Tiki Barber announced that he was going to retire at the end of the 2006 season. Heck, he's the best running back the team's ever had, and he was in the middle of his peak-performance years (he won't turn 32 until April). But Tiki had a vision; he knew he had a future in media, since he had been working on local TV, then Fox and Friends, even while he was playing. He figured it would be better to start that future now, rather than after a couple of more years of being pounded to a pulp by 300-pound linemen.

His future starts today, as NBC announced that they have signed Barber not only to work in the Football Night in America studio next season, but also work as a correspondent for Today, where he'll start in April. This isn't a surprise, given Barber's previous morning-show experience at the Fox News Channel. Not sure what Barber will report on, but I'm sure it won't just be sports-related issues. Could they be grooming him for hosting duties on the show's fourth hour? Who knows...